mPower Founder Marcia Davies: ‘We’re All in This Together’
(Marcia Davies on stage during mPowering you, Image by Anneliese Mahoney)
DENVER–“Nothing is off limits, because we will do everything to help each other succeed,” said Marcia Davies, Chief Operating Officer for the Mortgage Bankers Association, and founder of mPower, at the mPowering You Summit for Women in Real Estate Finance Oct. 26.
Davies was referring to some key aspects of mPower–the openness, advice and support that come from the community of women it has brought together.
She also took time to reflect on the state of women in the industry nearing a decade after mPower’s inception–with the first official mPowering You conference also hosted in Denver in 2017.
“There was nothing in our industry for women. As women, we had no dedicated place to come together. We had no tailored opportunities for professional development, and worst of all, we had no way to truly fight the biases in the workplace,” Davies recalled about the first summit.
“When we held this first conference, we already had more than 1,000 women involved,” Davies said. “Today, we have nearly 10,000 women in the mPower community, with thousands more that attend our events.”
Davies thanked the female leaders and female-led companies that helped propel mPower, and the male allies that have similarly played a vital role.
She also remembered the encouragement of the late David H. Stevens, CMB, former MBA President and CEO; he was deeply supportive of the endeavor. “He gave me the freedom to make mPower a huge part of my job,” she said. “And ultimately that meant he gave me the freedom to make mPower a huge part of this industry.”
“We’re inspiring countless men as well. This group has led to an unprecedented awareness of how important women are,” Davies said. “We’ve caused companies to recognize that women are often their top producers. We’ve helped the industry develop policies that make it easier and fairer for women to rise within organizations.”
mPower–and women in the mortgage banking industry–have seen significant success, Davies noted. But, there’s still more work to be done.
“In the past few years, more women have taken on higher roles, but we hit the industry like a wave, and now that wave is starting to recede,” Davies said, as some of those leaders retire or move to other organizations or fields. She said that the industry needs to continue to ensure women are able to succeed, move up and enter leadership positions.
“We know that diversity of thought, opinion and experience matter. We must speak out–early and often–about having qualified women in the mix, and we need to get louder, starting today,” she said.
“As women in the mortgage finance industry, we must promise to keep breaking those barriers. We must promise to keep fighting for true equality and opportunity,” Davies concluded. “We must promise to keep speaking up and standing out, especially when we are told not to and, yes, we must promise to empower our generation and every generation that comes after us.”
